Early drop off: 8:30 - 9:00am

Morning Program: 9:00am - 12:00pm

Lunch Bunch: 12:00 - 1:00pm

Enrichment: 12:00 - 3:00pm

Extended Day: 3:00 - 5:30pm

Office Hours: 12:00 - 4:00pm

Check Tuition Page for cost break down

To ensure the safety of our students and staff, we follow all MSDE and OCC classroom size guidelines. As part of this, our classes are capped at the following number of students per class:

• 2-Day Twos class (Thurs, Fri) = 10

• 3-Day Twos class (Mon, Tues, Wed) = 10

• 5-Day Twos class (Mon - Fri) = 10

• Threes and PreK classes = 16

• Twos class = 2:10

• Threes class = 2:16

• Pre-K class = 2:16

The school calendar is set each year by the Board of Directors and guided by Montgomery County Public Schools. Generally, the school year begins the first week in September, after Labor Day, and ends the first week in June. Spring Knolls closely follows Montgomery County Public Schools policy regarding inclement weather closings.

Children entering the Twos classes must be two years old by the start of the September term. For specific reasons, Spring Knolls aims to put younger 2-year olds (those turning 3 in March or later) in the 2-Day Twos class (which meets Thursday and Friday), and older 2-year olds (those turning 3 before March) in the 3-Day Twos class (which meets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). These are guidelines, and the admissions committee reserves the authority to make final class placements.

Spring Knolls' closure status directly correlates to Montgomery County Public Schools.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY CLOSURE STATUS (If): SPRING KNOLLS CLOSURE STATUS (Then)

Closed: Closed

2 Hour Delay: Open at 11:10, with afternoon programs

Dismissed Early: Dismissed at noon with no afternoon programs

For school closure/delay status Visit the MCPS Web site

For instant status updates Subscribe to the Alert Montgomery RSS feed

Drop-off & Pickup: Each family (or caregiver) is expected to put out a piece of fence in the morning at drop-off when the stairwell sign designates "outdoor play" as well as at pick-up time. Please make your caregivers aware that they are responsible for this task as well.

If you cannot co-op as scheduled (due to sickness, vacation, etc.) you can either send the other parent to substitute (this person does not need to have co-oper status), reschedule your cooping day or find another co-oper who is willing to trade days with you.

We strongly encourage you to find another parent with whom you can swap during the year as the need arises. If you are unable to reschedule or arrange a swap, in this case, you will be billed a penalty fee of $60 on your monthly invoice.

Parents who miss two co-op duties without prior notice may be removed from co-oping status at the discretion of the Board.

Each class has a method for taking pictures of the class. These photos will be reviewed and uploaded to Bloomz for your access. When you are co-oping please feel free to take lots of pictures of our wonderful students with the dedicated camera, but refrain from taking pictures with personal phones. When sharing Spring Knolls pictures with family and close friends, please refrain from posting pictures to social media. We ask that you respect many families’ desire to keep their child’s picture off of the internet. Please ask your child’s teacher if you have further questions.

Our school is equipped with an Emergency Preparedness Plan. Be it a fire, city-wide emergency or other, our staff is trained to conform to our Plan and students participate in mandated drills. If there is an emergency, your family will be contacted. Please review the emergency plan from the parent handbook for more information.

Spring Knolls has a waiting pool of applicants, as opposed to a chronological “waiting list.” The admissions policy (see page 2 of the Parent Handbook), is as follows: Maintaining a diverse student population, reasonable age and gender balance, and adequate proportion of co-oping parents at each class level are primary goals of Spring Knolls, as is a commitment to the children of Spring Knolls parents, alumni, and staff. Spring Knolls therefore gives priority to applicants whose admission would further one or more of these goals. Because there may be more applicants than available spaces in particular classes, it may not be possible to admit all priority applicants in a given year.

All parents listed on submitted school forms as a co-oper must now be fingerprinted for a state and federal background check. The background check must be completed prior to co-oping. This does not apply to substitutes or volunteers—family members who visit or stand-in for you once or twice a year.

If a slot is offered to your child, you must pay (within a specified time stated with the offer) the equivalent of one month’s current tuition in order to hold your place. This deposit will ultimately be applied to your tuition payment for the month of May the following year. This deposit is non-refundable. The school membership votes on tuition increases for the following school year at the Spring Parent Meeting held in April/May. (If an increase occurs, it is usually 5-7%.) This increase would be reflected in the September tuition statement.

All families who accept the placement offer and enroll their child in Spring Knolls will be required to read and sign the Parent-School Agreement. This agreement outlines the financial and voluntary obligations of families vis-à-vis the school, and ensures that both the families and the school have a clear understanding of expectations before the school year begins. This also serves as an opportunity for new families to get more information about how the school runs and ask any additional questions they might have.

Spring Knolls is a co-operative pre-school, which means that the much of the school’s operation is reliant upon the efforts of its member families. Upon joining Spring Knolls, families make both a financial and a time commitment to the smooth running of the school.

Detailed descriptions of each class can be found on our Classes & Programs pages: Twos, Threes, or Pre-K. Each class follows a similar basic structure with varying activities designed to suite the particular developmental needs of the given age group. The general schedule of the day includes:

• supervised free play

• circle time with songs and morning greetings

• teacher-directed activities (depending on the age of the children, this may included water play, art projects, cooking, science experiments, books and writing table work, puzzles, etc.)

• toileting and hand washing

• snack

• outdoor play (or indoor play in the gym during inclement weather)

Please see our Fees page.